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51. Message About Babylon

1 This is what the LORD says:

   “See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer
   against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai. Leb Kamai is a cryptogram for Chaldea, that is, Babylonia.
2 I will send foreigners to Babylon
   to winnow her and to devastate her land;
they will oppose her on every side
   in the day of her disaster.
3 Let not the archer string his bow,
   nor let him put on his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
   completely destroy The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them. her army.
4 They will fall down slain in Babylon, Or Chaldea
   fatally wounded in her streets.
5 For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
   by their God, the LORD Almighty,
though their land Or Almighty, / and the land of the Babylonians is full of guilt
   before the Holy One of Israel.

    6 “Flee from Babylon!
   Run for your lives!
   Do not be destroyed because of her sins.
It is time for the LORD’s vengeance;
   he will repay her what she deserves.
7 Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand;
   she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
   therefore they have now gone mad.
8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
   Wail over her!
Get balm for her pain;
   perhaps she can be healed.

    9 “‘We would have healed Babylon,
   but she cannot be healed;
let us leave her and each go to our own land,
   for her judgment reaches to the skies,
   it rises as high as the heavens.’

    10 “‘The LORD has vindicated us;
   come, let us tell in Zion
   what the LORD our God has done.’

    11 “Sharpen the arrows,
   take up the shields!
The LORD has stirred up the kings of the Medes,
   because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.
The LORD will take vengeance,
   vengeance for his temple.
12 Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon!
   Reinforce the guard,
station the watchmen,
   prepare an ambush!
The LORD will carry out his purpose,
   his decree against the people of Babylon.
13 You who live by many waters
   and are rich in treasures,
your end has come,
   the time for you to be destroyed.
14 The LORD Almighty has sworn by himself:
   I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts,
   and they will shout in triumph over you.

    15 “He made the earth by his power;
   he founded the world by his wisdom
   and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
   he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
   and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

    17 “Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
   every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud;
   they have no breath in them.
18 They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
   when their judgment comes, they will perish.
19 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
   for he is the Maker of all things,
including the people of his inheritance—
   the LORD Almighty is his name.

    20 “You are my war club,
   my weapon for battle—
with you I shatter nations,
   with you I destroy kingdoms,
21 with you I shatter horse and rider,
   with you I shatter chariot and driver,
22 with you I shatter man and woman,
   with you I shatter old man and youth,
   with you I shatter young man and young woman,
23 with you I shatter shepherd and flock,
   with you I shatter farmer and oxen,
   with you I shatter governors and officials.

    24 “Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia Or Chaldea; also in verse 35 for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.

    25 “I am against you, you destroying mountain,
   you who destroy the whole earth,” declares the LORD.
“I will stretch out my hand against you,
   roll you off the cliffs,
   and make you a burned-out mountain.
26 No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone,
   nor any stone for a foundation,
   for you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD.

    27 “Lift up a banner in the land!
   Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations for battle against her;
   summon against her these kingdoms:
   Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander against her;
   send up horses like a swarm of locusts.
28 Prepare the nations for battle against her—
   the kings of the Medes,
their governors and all their officials,
   and all the countries they rule.
29 The land trembles and writhes,
   for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand—
to lay waste the land of Babylon
   so that no one will live there.
30 Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;
   they remain in their strongholds.
Their strength is exhausted;
   they have become weaklings.
Her dwellings are set on fire;
   the bars of her gates are broken.
31 One courier follows another
   and messenger follows messenger
to announce to the king of Babylon
   that his entire city is captured,
32 the river crossings seized,
   the marshes set on fire,
   and the soldiers terrified.”

    33 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

   “Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
   at the time it is trampled;
   the time to harvest her will soon come.”

    34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us,
   he has thrown us into confusion,
   he has made us an empty jar.
Like a serpent he has swallowed us
   and filled his stomach with our delicacies,
   and then has spewed us out.
35 May the violence done to our flesh Or done to us and to our children be on Babylon,”
   say the inhabitants of Zion.
“May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,”
   says Jerusalem.

    36 Therefore this is what the LORD says:

   “See, I will defend your cause
   and avenge you;
I will dry up her sea
   and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon will be a heap of ruins,
   a haunt of jackals,
an object of horror and scorn,
   a place where no one lives.
38 Her people all roar like young lions,
   they growl like lion cubs.
39 But while they are aroused,
   I will set out a feast for them
   and make them drunk,
so that they shout with laughter—
   then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the LORD.
40 “I will bring them down
   like lambs to the slaughter,
   like rams and goats.

    41 “How Sheshak Sheshak is a cryptogram for Babylon. will be captured,
   the boast of the whole earth seized!
How desolate Babylon will be
   among the nations!
42 The sea will rise over Babylon;
   its roaring waves will cover her.
43 Her towns will be desolate,
   a dry and desert land,
a land where no one lives,
   through which no one travels.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon
   and make him spew out what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
   And the wall of Babylon will fall.

    45 “Come out of her, my people!
   Run for your lives!
   Run from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 Do not lose heart or be afraid
   when rumors are heard in the land;
one rumor comes this year, another the next,
   rumors of violence in the land
   and of ruler against ruler.
47 For the time will surely come
   when I will punish the idols of Babylon;
her whole land will be disgraced
   and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
   will shout for joy over Babylon,
for out of the north
   destroyers will attack her,” declares the LORD.

    49 “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
   just as the slain in all the earth
   have fallen because of Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
   leave and do not linger!
Remember the LORD in a distant land,
   and call to mind Jerusalem.”

    51 “We are disgraced,
   for we have been insulted
   and shame covers our faces,
because foreigners have entered
   the holy places of the LORD’s house.”

    52 “But days are coming,” declares the LORD,
   “when I will punish her idols,
and throughout her land
   the wounded will groan.
53 Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens
   and fortifies her lofty stronghold,
   I will send destroyers against her,” declares the LORD.

    54 “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
   the sound of great destruction
   from the land of the Babylonians. Or Chaldeans
55 The LORD will destroy Babylon;
   he will silence her noisy din.
Waves of enemies will rage like great waters;
   the roar of their voices will resound.
56 A destroyer will come against Babylon;
   her warriors will be captured,
   and their bows will be broken.
For the LORD is a God of retribution;
   he will repay in full.
57 I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
   her governors, officers and warriors as well;
they will sleep forever and not awake,”
   declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty.

    58 This is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled
   and her high gates set on fire;
the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing,
   the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”

    59 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. 60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. 61 He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. 62 Then say, ‘LORD, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’ 63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. 64 Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.’”

   The words of Jeremiah end here.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

It is thought that these words were spoken by the Prophet to the faithful, to confirm them as to their return. But I rather think that they were spoken by way of anticipation. They who think that they were spoken as a formula to the Israelites, that they might with more alacrity prepare themselves for their return, suppose a verb understood, “Say ye, we are confounded (or ashamed), because we have heard reproach;” even that sorrow would wound the minds of the faithful, to the end that they might nevertheless go through all their difficulties. But as I have said, the Prophet here repeats what the faithful might have of themselves conceived in their own minds; and he thus speaks by way of concession, as though he said, “I know that you have in readiness these words, ‘We are ashamed, we are overwhelmed with reproaches; strangers have entered into the sanctuary of God: since the temple is polluted and the city overthrown, what any more remains for us? and doubtless we see that all things supply reasons for despair.’”

As, then, the thoughts of the flesh suggested to the faithful such things as might have dejected their minds, the Prophet meets them and recites their words. He then says, as in their person, We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; that is, because we have been harassed by the reproaches of our enemies. For there is no doubt but that the Chaldeans heaped many reproaches on that miserable people; for their pride and their cruelty were such that they insulted the Jews, especially as their religion was wholly different. As, then, the ears of the people were often annoyed by reproaches, the Prophet declares here that they had some cause according to the flesh, why they could hardly dare to entertain the hope of a return.

To the same purpose is what he adds, Shame hath covered our faces, because strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah For it was the chief glory of the chosen people that they had a temple where they did not in vain call upon God; for this promise was like an invaluable treasure,

“I will dwell in the midst of you; this is my rest, here will I dwell.” (Psalm 132:13, 14)

As, then, God was pleased to choose for himself that throne and habitation in the world, it was, as I have said, the principal dignity of the people. But when the temple was overthrown, what more remained for them? it was as though religion was wholly subverted, and as though God also had left them and moved elsewhere; in short, all their hope of divine aid and of salvation was taken away from there.

We now, then, understand why the Prophet speaks thus according to the common thoughts of the people, even that they were covered with shame, because strangers had come into God’s sanctuaries; for that habitation, which God had chosen for himself, was polluted. And he says “sanctuaries,” in the plural number, because the temple had many departments, as the tabernacle had; for there was rite vestibule or the court where they killed the victims; and then there was the holy place, and there was the holy of holies, which was the inner sanctuary. It was then on this account that he said that the sanctuaries of the house of God were possessed by strangers; for it was a sad and shameful pollution when strangers took possession of God’s temple, where even the common people were not admitted; for though the whole of the people were consecrated to God, yet none but the priests entered the temple. It was therefore a dreadful profanation of the temple, when enemies entered it by force and for the sake of degrading it. What then remained for the people, except despair?

“This is your glory,” said Moses, “before all nations; for what people so noble, what nation so illustrious, as to have gods so near to it!” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8)

When, therefore, God ceased to dwell familiarly with the Jews, all their glory fell, and they were overwhelmed with shame. But after the Prophet recited these complaints, he immediately subjoins a consolation, —
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